Apple’s native Mail app have emerged. In past entries, we have reviewed other iPhone email clients and even recommended some of them. This time though, we will take a closer look at four replacements for Apple Mail that offer a unique feature (or set of features) that iPhone users might find useful. Let’s get started with them.
1. CloudMagic
Right from the moment you start using it, CloudMagic stands out for its simple, yet rich interface and almost flawless performance. This mail app is compatible with all major email providers, so you can freely add your Gmail or iCloud accounts. Once you start using it, you’ll notice CloudMagic’s speedy interface. Downloading and viewing your email on the app is just as fast (and sometimes faster) than the native Mail application. Its strength however, is searching your mail, which it does exceptionally well. However, CloudMagic doesn’t seem to keep your email database, so if you want to look for an older message or search offline, you are out of luck.
2. Heed
Among all the mail apps on this list Heed is, in my opinion, the best looking one. It is also (sadly) the one with the most performance issues. Heed supports all types of email services, so you can easily add your Gmail or iCloud account to it (multiple accounts require an in-app purchase of $3.99). The moment you open it, you’ll notice Heed is a showcase of good design: A gorgeous, perfectly sized font, minimal iconography and a great couple of ideas for better email management. It is exactly these ideas that make Heed unique. First, the app lets you assign a higher priority to any message by swiping it further to the right while also letting you assign rules to prioritize messages automatically depending on certain criteria. Now, while this approach is not entirely new, Heed really innovates with how simply it implements it. In similar fashion, double tapping on any unread message marks it as read. These couple of features make Heed one of the fastest apps to manage email. However, there are a few features that the app does not offer and that might be considered essential by any heavy email user. To start, Heed does no let you flag emails, nor does it offer any kind of folder management, which is something some Gmail users rely heavily upon. In addition to that, the app suffers from slowdown and responsiveness issues, which is something I hope gets fixed in a future release.
3. Squareone Mail
With its recent update, Squareone Mail improved several of its important features, like being able to sort your messages by ‘Zones’ (or folder if you prefer), pre-sort them and such. The app does not support iCloud accounts so far but it will in future updates. Other than that, it looks and runs great, renders email fast and excels at filtering your email in different categories, which is definitely its distinctive feature.
4. Boxer
While not completely new to the App Store, Boxer is gaining fast adoption mainly due to its excellent support of all major email services and its great features. These include Dropbox, Box, Facebook, Evernote and LinkedIn integration, something that comes in very handy for anyone who relies heavily on those services. Personally, I find Boxer’s interface a bit cluttered and ‘heavy’, with icons and buttons way too accentuated. However, what it lacks in the looks department, it delivers in raw performance, which is a great thing. Mail syncing is easily the fastest from the group of apps listed here, and its gesture based mail management is great, allowing you to set messages as to-dos (or several other actions) with simple swipes. And that’s about it. Make sure to give all of these mail apps a try. All of them are available for free and you will most likely find one that offers features that will make you replace the native Mail app.
